ECW on TNN by Chris Palacios

8.10.99

BLAH

In an age where the women of the professional wrestling business are treated
like child actors, ECW brings you an expose on the wrestling business from
a woman's perspective by interviewing the woman formerly known as Sunny in
the World Wrestling Federation...an interview with Tammy Lynn Sytch this
week on ECW!

After the opening credits roll, Joey Styles and Joel Gertner tease the rest
of the show to us, including the impact Lance Storm has had on Jerry Lynn's
career, a match featuring Yoshihiro Tajiri, and the aforementioned Sytch
interview on a "historic" ECW broadcast. Meanwhile, the first 5 minutes of
the show have already featured clips of the various big name valets that have
appeared in ECW...Sytch, Woman, Kimona, Beulah, Dawn Marie, etc. Throw in
a random shot from the ECW Arena of Sytch and Dawn Marie in a catfight where
Dawn ends up stripped down to a bra and panties.

Insert November To Remember PPV ad and Hardcore Hotline ad here. (Bigger
than Hall and Nash...bigger than Jericho...learn about the biggest talent raid
in the history of the Monday night wars!)

We return to see clips of Tammy Lynn in various states of "barely dressed"
and get another reminder from Joey about the interview later in the show.
Joey then tosses us to a match from the Anarchy Rulz PPV, to which Joel
says something about Cyrus joining Joey in the broadcast booth before
saying "insert wise crack remark here". Hmmmm...

We join Yoshihiro Tajiri, Super Crazy, and Little Guido in a three way
dance already in progress. Crazy hits an early crossbody on Guido, but
Tajiri takes advantage and hits kicks to both of his opponents. Tajiri
blocks a Guido reversal attempt and tosses Guido face first to the rampway.
Tajiri then hits a tilt-a-whirl head scissors on Crazy, but Crazy responds
with a springboard dropkick. Before Crazy can take advantage, Guido hits
a springboard crossbody and locks on a camel clutch. Tajiri seizes the
opportunity and hits a dropkick to Crazy's face while still in Guido's
clutch, then hits Guido with a dropkick to break the hold. In a nice spot,
Tajiri monkey flips Crazy, who lands on his feet only to be met with a
Guido clothesline. Both Crazy and Guido end up on the outside, and Tajiri
takes advantage with an Asai moonsault as we head to commercial.

We return to find Crazy hitting a top rope Asai moonsault that is truly
worthy of a 1wrestling.com Extreme Replay. After the full-screen replay,
we see Sal E. Graziano falling through a ringside table (huh?). As Tajiri
is standing on the ring apron, he attempts to sunset flip Crazy, who is
inside of the ring, but in mid-move, Tajiri turns it into the Tarantula
in a nice spot broken up by a Guido dropkick to Crazy's face. Crazy recovers
and locks Tajiri in a rolling bow-and-arrow, then stops and turns it into a
variation of the Dragon sleeper. Tajiri then ends up on the wrong end of
a combination camel clutch from Crazy and a Sicilian crab from Guido that
showcases Tajiri's ridiculous flexibility. Guido follows with a Tomikaze
on Crazy, and Tajiri lands a standing side kick on Guido. Tajiri then sets
up and hits Guido with the tree of woe sliding kick to the face. Crazy
follows with a moonsault and gets the pin on Guido, leaving Crazy and Tajiri
to finish the match. Crazy gets the early advantage with an apron-to-middle
rope moonsault for a 2 count before taking Tajiri to the corner and landing
10 punches, which the Chicago crowd happily counts in Spanish. Tajiri
recovers and hits a handspring elbow, but Crazy responds with a spinning
sit-out powerbomb. A second powerbomb attempt turns into a Tajiri tornado
DDT, but Crazy responds with an inverted tornado DDT. Crazy then tries
his "three moonsaults" spot, but after hitting the bottom rope moonsault,
Tajiri gets the knees up for the middle rope moonsault. Tajiri follows with
a few of his patented nasty kicks and a brainbuster to get the pin. Joey
and Joel get a quick Storm/Lynn and Sytch plug before the break.

Insert Hardcore Hotline ad here. (WCW sex scandal that you won't hear about!
2 former World champs return to action at November To Remember!)

After some clips of Tammy Lynn Sytch's early days in Smoky Mountain Wrestling,
we have part one of the interview with Ms. Sytch. She was "on top of the
world" during her SMW days, and after jumping to the WWF, she became a pinup
star. Turns out someone out there made a website dedicated to her feet.
She then admits that the pressure of being in the limelight led to her abuse
of soma, a prescription muscle relaxant. Sytch says soma use is widespread
in the locker rooms of wrestlers, going so far as to mention details of the
death of Louie Spicolli.

Already, this interview is making me very uneasy.

Joey and Joel then toss us back to Anarchy Rulz, where Lance Storm faced
Jerry Lynn. We even get ring introductions and the entire match without
commercials on this one! The match starts with some nice chain wrestling
and reversals. Lynn has taped ribs, selling the attack at the ECW Arena by
the Impact Players (Storm and Justin Credible) that aired on TNN a few weeks
ago. Lynn starts the offense with a tilt-a-whirl head scissors followed by
a headlock takeover. Storm pulls out the Flair flip after a whip to the
corner, but Lynn ducks Storm's clothesline from the apron, and Storm ducks
Lynn's clothesline attempt only to catch a dropkick by Lynn off of the middle
turnbuckle. Lynn hits a baseball slide, then uses the opportunity to toss
Storm into the railing on the outside. Back in the ring, Lynn turns his
crucifix attempt into a sunset flip, then follows with another headlock
takeover. Storm attempts a belly-to-back suplex, but Lynn floats over only
to be met with a hot shot by Storm. Lynn takes a sweet dropkick from Storm,
who follows with a cartwheel clothesline into the corner. Storm then runs
towards Lynn in the corner, but Lynn lifts himself up and spins into a sunset
flip for a 2 count. Storm, who is now on the outside, gets hit with a Lynn
plancha from the top turnbuckle...worthy of a replay in my book. Hey! The
replay is on half of the screen, and the match is live in a box on the same
screen! Lynn grazes Storm with a missile dropkick for a 2 count. Lynn then
leads into the spot of the night...a cradle piledriver turns into a Storm
backdrop, then turns into a Lynn rollup, and the two men counter into about
15 different pinning predicaments that leads to a Lynn German suplex for a
2 count. At this point, the fans in Chicago erupt in a standing ovation for
a brilliant sequence. Storm lands a superkick, then turns a Lynn suplex into
a reverse inverted DDT. Dawn Marie slides a chair into the ring, and Storm
wedges it between the top and middle turnbuckles, but an attempt to whip
Lynn to the corner is reversed, sending Storm into the chair. Lynn then hits
a top rope sunset flip into a powerbomb with a bridge for a sweet false
finish. Storm attempts to powerbomb Lynn on a second chair lying in the
middle of the ring, but Lynn counters with a reverse DDT onto the chair. Dawn
Marie places Storm's foot on the rope to break the count, and Storm uses the
second chance to send Lynn into the corner with the wedged chair. Lynn sees
the chair and slides so he won't hit it, only to slide rib-first into the
ringpost. Storm then hits Lynn with a backbreaker, holding Lynn's back across
his knee to work over the ribs. Lynn punches his way out, then turns a Storm
tilt-a-whirl into a Stunner. Lynn then heads up to the top rope and leaps
onto Storm with a hurracanrana. Then, out of nowhere, Storm lands a kick to
Lynn's ribs and quickly puts Lynn in a nifty cradle to land the surprise pin.

Gertner runs down some house show dates and quickly mentions Storm facing
Chris Candido on next week's show. Joel then plugs the website, magazine,
and the Sytch interview.

Insert TWO November To Remember ads here. Remember last week when I said
they were bush league for doing that? I guess that "insert here" comment that
Joel made earlier had nothing to do with my column after all.

We return to the Sytch interview, where Tammy reveals that she was considered
"old" by the wrestling biz in 1997, when she was only 24 years old. She
resents being termed a "Kliq chick"...so what if she was friends with that
group and made their hotel reservations? Tammy would rather be pushed on her
talents instead of who she knows in the biz. After her departure from the
WWF, she felt a weight lifted off her shoulders. She could spend some time
at home, start a family, relax a little bit. Unfortunately, Tammy took too
much advantage of her free time, and when the pills ran out, she hit the
bottle for the first time.

At this point, it's hard to feel sorry for her, but at least she's being
honest about her inner demons. Broadcasting this on TV though? Seems a
bit muddy even for ECW.

That's when the interview turns...Sytch admits that there were times when
she didn't want to wake up after the deaths of her father and her niece.
Her niece was 16 years old and on life support when she died. Tammy reveals
that her niece's hands went cold while in Tammy's hands, and now the salt
from Tammy's tears are leaving tracks on her somber face.

Something about this interview is JUST PLAIN WRONG...I got the same feeling
when I saw Melanie Pillman on RAW the night after her husband died. The
thought going through my mind then was "why put this on television?", and
I have a bad feeling ECW is putting this on TV for a reason.

Finally, Sytch closes with a statement that she will once again set the
standard for women in the wrestling busines...